Taylor Swift supports the ‘iconoclasm’ that is currently going on, defacing or even overturning statues of historical figures who would have done racist things. On Twitter, she has called for the removal of all monuments to racist figures in her home state of Tennessee.
“Villains don’t deserve statues”
According to the singer, men like Edward Carmack (journalist with racist expressions) and Nathan Bedford (general of the Southern States and first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan) were “despicable” figures and should be treated as such.
Taylor thinks it is therefore not possible that the image of Carmack, which was knocked over this week, will be republished by the state of Tennessee. “Restoring his statue with money from the treasury is a waste of money and a missed opportunity to do the right thing,” she writes in one of her series of tweets on the subject.
According to the singer, the contouring of images does not make up for the fact that black Americans have been suppressed for centuries and suffered violence and hatred. “But it can bring us a step closer to the moment that ALL Tennessee people and visitors to the state feel safe, not just the whites.”
His statue is still standing and July 13th is ‘Nathan Bedford Forrest Day.’ Due to social pressure, the state is trying to overrule this, and Tennesseans might no longer have to stomach it. Fingers crossed.
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 12, 2020
Taylor therefore calls for the status of these “heroes of the past” to be changed into the villains they actually were. “Because villains don’t deserve statues.” With this she hopes to break the “painful circle”. “You cannot change the past, but you can.”
We need to retroactively change the status of people who perpetuated hideous patterns of racism from ‘heroes’ to ‘villains.’ And villains don’t deserve statues.
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 12, 2020